Friday, August 15, 2008

Cinderella gets busted

Please don't tell my six year-old daughter, but yesterday, Cinderella, Tinkerbell and a few other of her no-good gangsta beeyatches got arrested. What's the world coming to?

In other news, I have two finished objects: one is the KnitScene sweater, which I can't show you, but the other is the baby sweater for a baby shower that I didn't attend:

It's a Louisa Harding pattern from her book Natural Knits for Babies and Moms: Beautiful Designs Using Organic Yarns (which is rapidly becoming my go-to baby pattern book for shower gifts because the patterns are quick, easy and cute in a way that would appeal to a lot of different tastes), knit in Plymouth Encore (you can't beat it for machine-washable kid knits).

We're leaving for our second week at the shore this weekend (we're the champions of the non-consecutive weeks), so you'll be getting some beachy updates during the coming week. But when I get back, it's going to be fall, fall, fall. Book reviews, yarn previews, all that fun stuff. Plus the dye pots are going to roar back to life with some new yarns and new fibers.

Now I've got to go meet the exterminator to deal with some kind of bee or yellowjacket infestation. In our kitchen, no less. It's been freakin' Wild Kingdom here as I've spent more up-close-and-personal time with the insect world than I care to ever again.

I got into the back-lot of Dizzyland last spring break--dd's high school marching band did a gig there. NOBODY smiles back there. They all look like they'd just as soon spit in your food or kick your dog. Why do we hate what we do and do what we hate?

As for the Disney hotel workers--I worked in a hotel years ago. The housekeeping staff gets the shaft--lowest pay, no respect. Leave a tip in your room at the end of your hotel stay. These workers are almost always women and they deserve the help. Just my two cents worth.

Well, I do not begrudge anyone who wants health care and a decent wage. I also don't look kindly upon employers whose profits are in the gazillions but are still trying to shaft workers by putting them in the part-time, i.e. without any benefits, category. I don't know much about this specific dispute so I don't feel like I can speak to it intelligently.

My senior year in college I woke up one morning to hundreds of yellow jackets in my dorm room. I remember getting out of bed and running blindly to the door (which locked behind me and I had no keys). I called the campus police to let me back in the room and explained to this large, burley officer what at happened. He laughed at me and said "You afraid of some little bees?" and opened the door. Where a swarm of yellow jackets rushed him and he yelled and immediately slammed it shut.

Apparently the yellow jackets had a colony in the walls between my dorm room and m neighbor. It took 4 attempts at extermination for the college to get rid of them all. It sucked.

And irony of all ironies--even though there were yellow jackets everywhere I did not get stung. Years later in grad school one stung me on the hand while walking to a class. Almost immediately I went into shock with my throat and tongue swelling and ended up in the hospital. I didn't know that I was allergic to them until that day, so I guess I got lucky with the yellow jackets in college.

The baby sweater is wonderful! That's the style I like best. We had bathroom wasps a couple of years ago. I can sympathize with your infestation. :o/ The wasps came in through the ceiling fan, were in the toilet paper roll and annoyed when you pulled on the paper. They hid in the towels. They joined us in the shower, arriving from some hidden spot. Rather a defenceless feeling! We went armed with flashlights in the night, as they'd be on the floor in the dark. They came out from the light fixture when you turned it on. It was not fun! Hope yours are gone with one treatment! Ours were, thank goodness. :O) samm